FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A northeastern Indiana congressional candidate said she abruptly ended a debate because she got stage fright.

Democrat Maria Parra walked off a television stage Thursday, ending what would have been her only debate with incumbent Republican Mark Souder in the 3rd District congressional race.

"I'm not used to being in front of the camera. ... I couldn't get my words out. I was just overwhelmed," she said after the aborted debate, which was being filmed at WPTA and would have been aired this weekend. The matchup has not been rescheduled and is not likely to be, The Journal Gazette reported Friday.

Parra said she "absolutely" thought backing out of the debate would hurt her politically, but hoped people would understand.

I am dismayed at how mean spirited we are becoming. For crying out loud, this election season has turned us into as mean a group as I have seen. A fellow human being succumbs to something that is quite common, humiliates herself, and everyone has a har har about it.

I hate it when freepers act like dems. Do we forget who we are? Is is just politics all the time? If we become that, we are them and we are lost.

Links to her website are found on "Indiana Progressives" (http://www.fortwayne4dean.com/)

Her parents (FIDEL and Maria Luisa) moved here (from Mexico?) in 40's.

From her webpage: "I lived in the East for a number of years and worked for IBM, DuPont, and CS First Boston. I also lived and worked for one year in Mexico City for CVC Telemercado Alameda. I returned to Fort Wayne and worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield and am currently working as an insurance agent. Click here for a detailed work experience resume. (pdf resume)

She is running for freakin' Congress. If she's a secretary or computer programmer, it doesn't matter, but this is freakin' Congress. I mean, what does she actually do in Congress but speechmakin' and pontificatin'?

25
posted on 10/22/2004 8:24:36 AM PDT
by AmishDude
(If I want on your ping list, I will ask you.)

More: "Our elderly deserve drug benefits at little or no cost. They are the World War II generation that endured and sacrificed so much to make this country the greatest country in the world. (Ahhh, Indiana is SUCH a great state. Our Leftists have to grit their teeth and say these things to even have a chance in most areas! LOL) When I am elected to Congress, I will strongly support a Medicare program that provides prescription drugs at little or no cost to our senior citizens. I am in favor of suspending future tax cuts for this just and noble cause. Our seniors deserve better and we deserve better!

I agree with you. I wouldn't vote for this woman but I think it is wrong to mock her. Hey, she tried putting herself out there to run for congress - good for her. Watching these canidates in debates, I'm a little amazed because I'd never be able to do it.

Too bad she ran away. Sounds like she could've used some helpful tips from sKerry on how to debate. He would've told her to just stand there and say absolutely anything! The truth is optional. Promise the little people the sun, the moon, and the stars. And later, when you can't produce a d*mn thing - just say it was Bush's fault.

No, I think we ought to be nicer than this. Maybe just because I had a stupendous double latte made right at home with my new super auto coffee machine that grinds the beans, frothes the milk and I used Brazilian coffee that costs a mint. It has me in a nice mood.

He's not the type of man to laugh or say something disparaging. I felt sort of sorry for her after the first time she walked out, then she started in on what "an embarrassment" Mark Sounder has been then she walked out again and my sympathy evaporated.

Well, I am entirely unsuited for a job as a male underwear model. I don't think I deserve any sympathy if I try to make a go of it as a career, and fail.

Hey, I never begrudge anyone for failing. The only people who don't fail are those who never put themselves out to be in a position to fail and that is a lot less admirabe in my opinion than coming off looking foolish.

"Hey, I never begrudge anyone for failing. The only people who don't fail are those who never put themselves out to be in a position to fail and that is a lot less admirabe in my opinion than coming off looking foolish."

I can understand that statement, but what I imagine (I don't really know the woman) is that this is not an example of the little engine that could, but an example of a poser... Someone who enjoys pretending to be some romantic concept of a noble idealogue "stateswoman" and when it came to a time for her to actually perform, her fraud was exposed. The same lady trying to make some speech at the local PTA and having the same thing happen would likely be expected to be given a large degree of sympathy and gracious encouragement. But this lady is running for a real office, and it is not at all inappropriate to acknowledge her failure to perform in this venue as evidence of her masquerade, as well as evidence of her inability to perform effectively in the office which she seeks.

Indiana has always been very conservative (indeed, our governor even refused to call our state legislature for the entire duration of the Civil War--in the process running the state government out of his own pocket--for fear that the state legislature would vote to secede), but for a serious answer to your question, I believe it has to do with the fact that Indiana does not have many big cities.

If you look at the other Midwestern states around us, they are all fairly conservative places, but the big cities "cancel" out the votes of the conservatives. Central and Southern IL are pretty conservative, but you have the massive population of Chicago that swings IL to the democratic side. Same with Ohio. Same with Michigan. But look to Kentucky, without any bigger cities, and you have conservativism.

All that aside, though, as a native and (former) 22 year resident of Indiana, I can tell you that it ain't all that conservative.

this lady is running for a real office, and it is not at all inappropriate to acknowledge her failure to perform in this venue as evidence of her masquerade, as well as evidence of her inability to perform effectively in the office which she seeks.

Yeah, I agree with you there. And if I were able to vote in Indiana I would never vote for her... But then based on her ideology I wouldn't vote for her if she sounded like Winston Chuchill :-)

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